I ran across during my Southern California sentence in which a sizeable amount was being written off because "taxpayer is deceased and all assets have been distributed."

I don't know what you consider sizeable, but I doubt it would have been in that catagory. The major issue was a 401K rollover that wasn't reported on the tax return. The other issues were a result of the tax preparer making a mess of reporting 1099s, 1099Rs and W-2s.